Rail joint



Patented Dec. 16, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RAIL JOINT.

Application led May 13, 1924. Serial No. 713,035.

To all whom t may conocia.'

Be it known that I, JOSEPH S. BEAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Mill Village, in the county of Sullivan,

State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful Rail Joint; and Ido hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to rail joints, and has for its object to providea device of this Character wherein adjacent railroad rails are securedin transverse recesses in the end of a cross tie by means of a wedgingmember, thereby obviating the use of fish plates and bolts, consequentlyreducing the cost of upkeep to a minimum.

The tie and rails are preferably forme from a metal, which will notcorrode, for instance as aluminum, and will not rapidly become damagedor worn incident to corrosion as is now the main difculty with metallicties.

A further object is to provide the outer edges of the rail flange withbevelled surfaces and with which bevelled surfaces a tapered keycooperates when driven into one side of the recess in the tie, saidtapered key being provided with a flange which overlies the upper sideof the adjacent flanges of adjacent rails.

A further object is to bevel downwardly and inwardly the inner side ofthe tread of the rails, thereby presenting a minimum amount of surfacewith which the flange of a wheel engages and consequently reduces thefriction to a minimum.

With the above and other objects in View the invention resides in thecombination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter set forth, shown inthe drawing, described and claimed, it being understood that changes inthe precise embodiment of the invention may be made within the scope ofwhat is claimed without departing from the spirit of the. invention.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a side elevation of one end of the tie showing the samepartly in vertical longitudinal cross section, and a rail disposedtherein.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of a tie, showing abutting adjacent railends disposed therein.

Figure 3 is an end view of the tie, showing adjacent rail ends ends.secured therein.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral l designates the cross tie, whichis preferably formed from a noncorrosive metal, such for instance asaluminum and 2 the conveXed underside thereof, which rests in a roadbed, and by being conveXed is more positively held by the roadbed. Theends of the tie l are provided with transversely disposed recesses 3 3having side channels 4L and in which recesses the adjacent ends of rails5 are received with their' flanges G within the channels 4. The outeredges of the flanges 6 of the rails are bevelled as shown at 7 forengaging the downwardly and outwardly inclined outer' wall 8 of therecess 3, and forming a bearing surface for the flange 9 of the angularwedge key l0, which is adapted to be driven into the inner channel 4 forwedging the adjacent rails 5 outwardly against the inclined surface 8.Thus it will be seen that the rails at opposite ends of the tie will bepositively held in accurate spaced relation, and against spreading. Itwill also be seen that the use of fish plates or bolts is eliminated,consequently the eX- pense of maintaining track walkers for tighteningfish plate bolts is also obviated.

lVedge keys l0 at opposite sides of the track are preferably driven intoposition in opposed relation, thereby counteracting the tendency of therails creeping incident to trafiic moving over the same.

The invention having been set forth what is claimed as new and useful isA rail joint comprising a railway tie, adjacent abutting rail endsdisposed in a re- Icess in the end of said tie, flanges carried by saidrails and disposed in channels in the walls of the recess of the tie,the outer edges of said flanges being bevelled, the outer flanges of therails having their bev elled edges in engagement with a bevelled surfaceat the outer end of the channel of the recess, an angularly shapedtapered wedge having a narrow and a wide flange, said narrow flange ofthe wedge engaging a bevelled surface in the other channel and thebevelled edges of the anges of the rails neme to this specification nthe presencel of at the inner sides of the rails, said. Wide twosubscribing Witnesses.

flanoe of the enfmlarly shaped wedo'e overlynV the upper ldes of theinner flznges of JOSEPH S' BEAN' 5 the adjacent rails and the `upperwall of the fitnessesg tie recess. GEORGE F. CRANE,

In testimony whereof I have slgned my M. JULIA CRANE.

